UCLA’s Darren Collison receives Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award

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UCLA point guard Darren Collison has earned at least one national postseason honor.

The graduating senior is the 2009 recipient of the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, presented annually by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The list of requirements isn’t exactly, well, short ...

• You must be a senior;
• You must play men’s basketball;
• You must excel athletically and academically;
• You must be 6-foot-0 or under.

Collison is the second Bruin to win the awards, joining 5-foot-10 Tyus Edney (1995). 5-foot-5 Earl Boykins won in 1998, then spent ten seasons in the NBA.

Collison, listed at 6-foot-0, decided that he wouldn’t cut his career short after last season and stayed in school for his senior year. The result was an All-Pac-10 performance with 14.4 points, 4.7 assists, and 1.6 steals per game. Collison led the conference in free throw percentage, was third in assists, steals, and assists-to-turnover ratio, and was 14th in scoring.

-- Adam Rose